A Following

Thanks in part to the invention of the mimeograph machine, a low-cost means of reproducing print that the photocopier eventually replaced in the late 1960s, the 1950s, and early 60s saw a proliferation of small independent literary magazines and presses across the country. These artist communities operated in relative independence from both the academy and the philanthropic foundations and nonprofit corporations that fund much of the arts today. Bukowski’s main publisher, John Martin, used earnings from his office supply business to create Black Sparrow Press with the specific intent to support Bukowski, who Martin considered the “new Walt Whitman” (Smith, Jonathan. "'I Never Saw Him Drunk’: An Interview with Bukowski’s Longtime Publisher." Vice, 20 June 2014. Accessed 10 April 2019.). Martin offered Bukowski a monthly stipend of $100 to quit his job at the post office and focus on writing full time. This was a game changing development for Bukowski, who had previously published his work through small chapbooks and cheap pamphlets. Martin’s office supply business afforded him access to an actual printing press, which became the basis for the signature boutique style of Black Sparrow Press’s publications. Black Sparrow Press’s first publication was a broadside for Bukowski’s poem “True Story,” published in an edition of 30.